Part 2. (See sample letter at bottom or Send an Instant email: www.cban.ca/corn) Filmmaker Marie-Monique Robin discussed her recent film 'The World According to Monsanto' in which she exposes many of Monsanto's controversial practices, from concealing knowledge of toxicity of PCBs to producing genetically modified seeds and related herbicides. Monsanto has a long history of manufacturing dangerous products. In 1949, an explosion in Nitro, a Monsanto factory in the US, caused 228 workers to develop an extremely disfiguring illness caused by dioxin, a highly toxic by-product of 2,4,5-T, a powerful herbicide manufactured in the factory. Monsanto's product Roundup, an herbicide which Monsanto advertised as biodegradable, is still sprayed on crops by unprotected farmers in Paraguay even though Monsanto has already been convicted twice of false advertising for the product. Robin also denounces Monsanto for not only denying that it ever heard of Agent Orange, a herbicide sprayed by the US Army on crops during the Vietnam war and which Monsanto had in fact manufactured, but also for manipulating scientific studies to hide links between Agent Orange and cancer. According to Robin, Monsanto has bought fifty seed companies in the last ten years. In a clip from Robin's film, physicist and ecologist Dr. Vandana Shiva warns: "Once [Monsanto has] established the norm that seed can be owned as their property, we will depend on them. If they control seed they control food. It's more powerful than bombs. This is the best way to control the populations of the world." Sample Letter: Hon. Leona Aglukkaq, Minister of Health [email protected] House of Commons Ottawa, Ontario K1A 0A6 Dear Minister Aglukkaq, I am writing to demand that Health Canada protect me and my family from untested genetically engineered 'SmartStax' com. It is unacceptable that Health Canada did not assess this GE food for health safety. This 'SmartStax' corn, with its combination of eight GE traits, was not examinied or approved by Health Canada but was authorized by Danadian Food Inspection Agency anyway.'SmartStax' was allowed to fly under the radar of Health Canada and shows me that our government's regulations of GE foods are too weak to protect me and my fellow Canadians. I demand that Health Canada stop the introduction of 'SmartStax' and that the federal government start an immediate review of all regulations for GE foods and crops.Thank you for your attention to this urgent and serious matter. I look forward to your prompt response. Sincerely, CC Hon. Gerry Ritz, Minister of Agricluture and Agri-Food [email protected]; Carol Swan, President, Canadian Food Inspection Agency, [email protected]; Judy Wasylycia-Leis, NDP Health Critic, [email protected]; Hon. Carolyn Bennett, Liberal Party Health Critic, [email protected]; Luc Malo, Bloc Quebecois Health Critis, [email protected]